Yogi Adityanath and his 52 cabinet colleagues took the oath of office and secrecy yesterday in a grand ceremony held at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national president J P Nadda, other top Union ministers, chief ministers from BJP-run states and dignitaries from the world of industry and entertainment graced the occasion. Yogi Adityanath’s team include 18 cabinet ministers including two deputy chief ministers, 14 ministers of state (independent charge) and 20 other ministers of state.
Of the 52 ministers, 31 are fresh faces which shows an amalgamation of youth and experienced leaders. Former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya got a cabinet berth while BJP state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and former IAS officer A K Sharma were also included in the list. Both Baby Rani Maurya and Swatantra Dev Singh are prominent OBC faces. Considered a close aide of PM Narendra Modi, Arvind Kumar Sharma kicked off his political innings after taking voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service and became a member of the UP Legislative Council. A Gujarat-cadre officer and a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Mau district, Sharma earlier served Modi when he was the chief minister of the state.
Lone Muslim face in the Yogi cabinet is Danish Azad Ansari who replaced Mohsin Raza as the representative of the minority community in the BJP government. Ansari’s father is a weaver. He has been associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and has been active in the BJP for a long time. He is the State General Secretary of BJP’s Minority Morcha.
Rakesh Rathore Guru, who became the Minister of State after winning the election from Sitapur, is a mechanic. A resident of Misrikh, Guru had come to Sitapur 40 years ago and had started a scooter repair shop. He entered the poll fray from the Sadar seat for the first time on the BJP and surprised everyone by not only winning the election but also securing a cabinet berth.
BJP ally Ashish Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal), former IPS officer Aseem Arun, Daya Shankar Singh, Nitin Agarwal and Kalyan Singh’s grandson Sandip Singh have also been included in the cabinet.
Other leaders who found a place in the Yogi cabinet are Jaiveer Singh, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Yogendra Upadhyay, Dharamveer Prajapati, Pratibha Shukla, Rajani Tiwari, Vijay Laxmi Gautam, Suresh Rahi, Kunwar Brijesh Singh Rawat, Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Jaswant Saini, Dr. Somendra Tomar, Rakesh Sachan, Arun Kumar Saxena, Anoop Pradhan, Brijesh Singh, KP Malik, Ramkesh Nishad, Sanjay Gangwar, Narendra Kashyap, and JPS Rathore.